THOSE WHO BLAME NAZIM HIKMET

They blame Hikmet, accuse him of being a 'Stalinist'

But they never blame those

Who were silent, without raising a voice

Or moving a pen

When Hikmet was in prison those long years.

From his Turkish prison cell, they claim,

Hikmet should have raged against the Soviet purges,

The gulags and the show trials;

The Left, they demand, must

Not have any of the faults

They accept with an indifferent shrug

In the Centre and the Right.

Outside the brick and stone walls,

The iron and steel in doors and windows

They demand, they who have never

Defecated and pissed in rusty buckets,

They demand and pass judgment -

Silent on those who now count the years

From freedom.

04.05.2017